Billings

Just had some excellent beef from Billngs - the long suffering and much cherished Mrs Nigel turned it into Boeuf Bourguignon and it was delicious .
Billings remains my go-to place for sausage and ham - consistently good as well as other meat and of course fish .

I understand Mina’s fish curry sauce is due to make a return - for those who haven’t tried it - do . Basically a wonderful home-cooked style dinner in 10 mins - make up some nonsense about how you learned to cook it whilst you were a sous-chef in Kerala and you are the Indian Nigel Slater .

Other recommendations are their bacon - always good and their pork chipolatas- took 2 kilos to Wales in October ( there were 4 of us so not as piggy as it sounds ) and they were highly appreciated .

When I pass the crowd outside Roses in E Dulwich I am very glad we have Billings - I think they are better value and better quality and they are all very nice peeps too .

Billings is my weekend treat for both meat or fish. Also helpful and knowledgeable which is handy as I usually have no idea what I want. Otherwise I always have their sausages in freezer as back up.

Did all Christmas food shopping this morning on Sydenham high street without having to venture into car and big shops. Collected my Christmas order from Billings, then added sausages, bacon and pork pie for good order. Popped into fresh & fruity next door to get all fruit and veg. Went to little Sainsbury’s for the 2 bits I couldn’t buy in local shops. Luckily had another helper for carrying but most relaxing Christmas shopping ever!!

Although I haven’t bought too many things from too many butchers - their back bacon is the best I have ever had. Absolutely delicious.

I’ve made a resolution to buy more from independent shops and buy less stuff which comes in plastic - as a result I’ve been going to Billings and Fresh and Fruity on a weekly basis (as well as using milk and more for milk/juice and occasional eggs and the Penge food hub).

Should’ve done this years ago.

Is Billings the one on Sydenham high street? Is it good there??

Extremely knowledgeable and helpful staff. A mix of free range and organic and a range of prices too. As I’ve cut down on meat generally, the fact that (understandably) prices are more than your high street supermarket has been offset for me by buying less overall! Haven’t tried a huge range of things but I’d definitely recommend:

• Chicken thighs/breasts (actually tastes like chicken compared to high street packaged stuff if you ask me)
• Mince
• Bacon
• The Pies (ridiculously well priced at between £1.40 and £1.80)
• The shell on prawns in the freezer
• Hot smoked salmon
• The eggs

But I’m sure everything is great!

How could you not mention the sausages!! they taste great and as fresh can also freeze and when cook no fat…

Overall agree pricewise a touch more but I also buy less meat during the week but what I get is worth it and they always make recommendations how to cook it. Lovely bunch of people working there

Ahh, the sausages, excellent - I go to Villagers once in a while but basically Billings for Provençal and really good pork chips - I once took about 3 pounds of them on our annual jaunt to friends in Pembrokeshire. The responsibility nearly broke me but they went down a storm at all three of the very full English breakfasts we had . They also do things like lardons, very useful in a kind of French way - not to mention their ham, for which I wouid need a Homer Simpson font to do justice .

The sausages are good at Billings Buuuuuuuuuutttt… I’m afraid (shhhhhhh) I get my sausages from Villagers in Beckenham too (I think at various times it may have been called “the sausage shop and/or Kennedy’s) website: https://www.englishsausages.com/. I’m on the Penge side of Sydenham so it’s not too far to go and well worth it. Once you go villages you’ll never go back to anything else. So many great flavours but the original “Ken n eddys” are our favourites.

I know this might sound irrational but I wish Billings was either a butcher or a fishmonger and not both.